Murdered: Drummer Lee Rigby with his wife Rebecca at their wedding in 2007. Their son Jack is just two

MI5 had been monitoring the two fanatics responsible for the slaughter of a young soldier near Woolwich barracks for eight years.

The Security Service is facing an inquiry by MPs amid a raft of devastating revelations about the killers’ known links to Islamist extremism.

One of the pair – Michael Adebolajo – was so high profile he was photographed outside Paddington Green police station six years ago behind notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary.

He was even intercepted by officials as he attempted to travel to Somalia to fight alongside Islamist terrorists last year.

It also emerged that Adebolajo was a violent ex-prisoner who was a member of a banned terrorist group.

Incredibly, he was said to have been preaching jihad on the streets of Woolwich earlier this week, only a few hundred yards from where 25-year-old Army Drummer Lee Rigby – a married father – was beheaded.

As MI5 faced accusations that they let the men slip through the net, David Cameron ordered a full intelligence review by a Westminster committee.

On a dramatic day:

Sources confirmed that 28-year-old Adebolajo once served a jail sentence for violence;

Share this article

The second suspect was reported last night by news outlets including Channel 4 News and The Times to be Michael Adebowale, 22, of Greenwich, south-east London.

The victim was named yesterday as Drummer Rigby, a veteran of the Afghanistan war who has a two-year-old son.

Father of a son: The victim was named yesterday as Drummer Lee Rigby, a veteran of the Afghanistan war

Much missed: Lee Rigby's friends, families and colleagues have paid tribute to the 'bubbly' character they loved

The
young soldier was run over and hacked to death with a meat cleaver and
knives near his barracks in Woolwich, South East London.

Minutes
later the two Islamists were gunned down by firearms officers after
charging towards them in an apparent attempt to kill themselves.

The
atrocity triggered a wave of national revulsion as the Prime Minster
branded it an attack on the British way of life and a ‘betrayal of
Islam’.

Adebolajo and Adebowale mowed down Lee Rigby in this car before hacking him to death in the street in front of horrified onlookers. The streak of blood in front of the car shows how they dragged his body into the street

After the killing: Michael Adebolajo, 28, pictured on Wednesday, once served a jail sentence for violence

Angels of Woolwich: Gemini Donnelly-Martin, 20, and her mother Amanda (right) talk to Adebolajo while Ingrid Loyau-Kennett (left) talks to the Adebowale as Lee Rigby lies dead in the road

Mr Cameron said there was no justification for the attack and the responsibility lay purely with the ‘sickening individuals’ behind it.

DID YOU SEE THE KILLING?

Did you witness the killing and take pictures or video?

Or do you know the men involved?

Email us: mailonlinepictures@dailymail.co.uk

Or call 0203 615 1943

He added: ‘This country will be
absolutely resolute in its stand against violent extremism and terror.
We will never give in to terror or terrorism in any of its forms.’

The list of questions faced by the authorities was growing fast as evidence of the danger the two men posed to Britain grew.

Sources said both men featured in ‘a number’ of counter terrorism investigations in recent years but were not seen as a ‘threat to life’.

Yet Adebolajo, who was born in South London but is of Nigerian descent, was linked to Choudary as long ago as 2003.

The
former fitness instructor is believed to have been a member of Al
Muhajiroun, which was led by the hate preacher until it was banned by
the Government.

British citizen: The second attacker was named last night in reports as Michael Adebowale, 22

Sticken: The two alleged terrorists were filmed a the drama as it unfolded on camera phones before witnesses were shepherded away by officers

Picture: This image was the first to emerge on Twitter, showing people close to the soldier's dead body while police hang over the men they have just shot, the same street as today's stabbing

Aftermath: The men waited for 20 minutes saying they wanted to shoot the police, but were gunned down themselves and are shown here being detained

Hovering: An air ambluance comes into land on Woolwich's Wellington Street as crowds gather at the scene of the murder

He was jailed at least once for
violence and friends said he was a member of a gang of knife-wielding
street robbers in his hometown of Romford, Essex.

'This
country will be absolutely resolute in its stand against violent
extremism and terror. We will never give in to terror or terrorism in
any of its forms'

Prime Minister David Cameron

Footage showed him standing directly behind Choudary during a protest outside Paddington Green police station in April 2007.

It
is believed he may have also been held by the Met in 2006 after
protesting outside the Old Bailey during the trial of four Muslim men.

The
defendants were ultimately jailed for their part in protests at the
Danish embassy in London against cartoons satirising the Prophet
Muhammad.

Tearful: A mourner is overcome as he surveys the field of flowers that has been laid in Woolwich in recent days

Tributes: A group of mothers and their children head to the Bararcks to leave flowers and messages for the dead soldier, who also had a son, two

Sad: Bouquets and wreaths are being left along the street and tied to teh railings close to where Lee Rigby died

Personal: This anonymous message was to Lee and thanked him for what he did for Britain

Moved: Three young women prepare to lay flowers where the unnamed soldier was murdered brutally in Woolwich on Wednesday

Message: A handwritten note was also left by one member of the public left distraught by what happened to the murdered man Lee Rigby

Attached to a bunch of white roses, the neatly written note is from a person who didn't know the victim but felt moved to visit where he died

Men linked to Al Muhajiroun gathered outside the high security police station after Muslim convert Abu Izzadeen was arrested for inciting terrorism.

Unbelievably, it is also claimed he was intercepted by police as he attempted to travel to Somalia last year to fight jihad.